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Dr. Fred Dunbar was a baseball-basketball standout from 1954-58 for Oklahoma City University. Dunbar played for three NCAA basketball tournament teams coached by Doyle Parrack and Abe Lemons.
In baseball, Dunbar played for Paul Hansen, then the baseball coach and assistant basketball coach. Dunbar, an outfielder-pitcher, had a career earned run average of 2.42 and had the highest batting average of a post-World War II player at OCU. Dunbar hit .324 with 10 RBIs as a freshman, .415 with two homers and 11 RBIs as a sophomore, .396 his junior year and .408 with two homers and nine RBIs as a senior. From Piedmont, Okla., Dunbar signed to play professionally with Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada of the Canadian League.
Dunbar coached basketball at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City from 1962-67 after playing two seasons with the Quantico Marines basketball team. Dunbar was named Mid-State Conference coach of the year in 1966. He also coached at El Reno Junior College, now known as Redlands Community College.
He later became a history and psychology professor at El Reno and taught in California, New Mexico and Minnesota.
Dunbar believes the basketball team his sophomore year was the best in OCU history. OCU went 20-7 and was ranked 11th in the nation in 1955-56, Dunbar's sophomore season. The Chiefs rose to as high as sixth in the rankings.
"It's quite an honor," Dunbar said of becoming an OCU hall of famer. "There's a lot of great people in that hall of fame including four of my teammates. We had the strongest team in the history of OCU basketball with Hub Reed leading the way."
Known as a sharpshooter, Dunbar sank five long-range jump shots against Penn in the All-College Tournament that year.
"My favorite memory was hitting those field goals against Pennsylvania, and we won it," Dunbar said. "We traveled from all points from Seattle to New York to Miami and just all over the country.
"Abe Lemons is a legend of a coach. He was fun to travel with. He followed me at Putnam City and was at my games. He had a great philosophy of life and the game."
Dunbar was known as the "Pride of Piedmont," but Lemons exaggerated that angle.
"Since we were ranked as high as we were, in the places we stopped, he'd introduce the players," Dunbar said. "He would tell that where I was born and raised there was a statue of me on the main drive. People would tell me later that they fell for it. His antics kept us entertained. He was quite an entertainer as well as a coach.
"The baseball was a joy, too. Paul Hansen was our coach, and he was an excellent coach. People know him more for his basketball coaching."
Dunbar has a wife, Helen, and the two live in Oklahoma City. They have four children, Debra, Dayna, Darron and Dustin.
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